Greater New Orleans

Mexican poet brings peace march to the United States

A well-known Mexican poet whose son was killed by drug gang members brought his call for peace to the U.S. on Saturday.

View full sizeHans-Maximo Musielik, The Associated PressMexican poet Javier Sicilia, who is leading the 'Caravan for for Peace with Justice and Dignity,' takes a break on the road from Chihuahua to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Thursday.

Javier Sicilia gathered about 1,500 followers during a week-long peace march that ended Friday in Ciudad Juarez, the most violent city in Mexico. He crossed into Texas on Saturday and spoke to hundreds of supporters at a park in downtown El Paso.

"The U.S. has a grave responsibility in all this, when its citizens remain silent, they are imposing war on us," he said in a quiet voice barely amplified by a bullhorn.

Sicilia spoke in support of local organizations' demands that the U.S. grant asylum to those who have fled the violence in Mexico and stop funding the Merida Initiative that helps the Mexican Army wage the war on drugs. Congress has approved $1.5 billion for the Merida Initiative since 2008. He also supported the demands for justice for American citizens and residents who have been killed in Mexico.

Sicilia said that U.S. citizens must press their government to bring an end to violence in Mexico. But also, he said, "Americans have to realize that behind every puff of pot, every line of coke there is death, there are shattered families."

Since the Mexican government launched an offensive on drug cartels in December 2006, more than 35,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence.

After the March 28 murder of his college-aged son in what prosecutors in Mexico call a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, Sicilia organized marches in his hometown of Cuernavaca, then to Mexico City and to Ciudad Juarez.

The rate of murders in Juarez has declined for three consecutive months but the city remains a symbol of the problems Mexico faces in the war against drugs.